Atrios mentioned this yesterday, but I think it bears repeating. The overly legalistic approach to Karl Rove’s leak is wholly at odds with the high standards articulated by George W. Bush shortly after his inauguration. Looking back, the comments sound like those of a Bush critic in 2005, not the president himself in 2001. After […]
There have been a few consistent rhetorical points coming from the White House and other Karl Rove defenders over the last week or so: the WH is cooperating with the investigation, Rove should keep his job, and the controversy itself is not all that important. On each of these three points, the public clearly disagrees. […]
So, as regular readers have probably noticed, we made a few cosmetic changes here at The Carpetbagger Report over the weekend, just to spiffy things up a bit. We made the blogroll a little easier to read, made the comments section a little easier to distinguish between comments, and a few other behind-the-scenes improvements that […]
After taking Thursday and Friday off, Scott McClellan returned to the White House press briefing room’s podium this afternoon. It didn’t go terribly well. Apparently, reporters are still rather interested in this criminal scandal and the lies they’ve been told. Go figure. Most of the early questions dealt with the president’s goalpost-moving, which McClellan insisted […]
Matt Bai wrote a fascinating item yesterday for the New York Times Magazine on what he calls “The Framing Wars.” It was the latest in a series of articles on George Lakoff, “Don’t Think of an Elephant!,” and the left’s embrace of a strategy for the future that centers around a more effective use of […]
On July 1, Sandra Day O’Connor surprised a lot of people by announcing her retirement from the Supreme Court. On July 2, Bush said he’d pick his replacement quickly. Based on this White House’s modus operandi, this was expected. When more than half of his cabinet needed to be replaced after last November’s election, Bush […]
I don’t often agree with Roll Call editor and Fox News contributor Morton Kondracke, but he’s absolutely right today with his column on Bill Frist and the pending fight in the Senate over stem-cell research funding. As Kondracke put it, Frist can either “save lives or please the right wing.” The Senate’s stem-cell debate forces […]
I suppose this was inevitable, but the standard for dismissal from the White House has officially shifted. It was a plain and simple standard: leak an agent’s identity, lose your job. That’s not the yardstick anymore. At a June 2004 press conference, a reporter asked Bush if he stood by his pledge to fire anyone […]
Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers: * The latest Rasmussen Reports poll in New Jersey shows Sen. Jon Corzine (D) continuing to enjoy a sizable lead over Republican Doug Forrester in the state’s gubernatorial race, 50% to 38%. * […]
Michael Kinsley asked a question over the weekend that I’ve long pondered: “What does it take in Washington to be so thoroughly discredited that nobody cares what you think?” Kinsley was referring to Newt Gingrich, but it’s so easily applicable to so many. Perhaps an even better example than the former Speaker is Manuel Miranda, […]